Two men indicted for fentanyl sale that led to a Brentwood dad’s fatal OD

Two Long Island men have been indicted on drug charges in connection with a fatal fentanyl overdose that left a 4-year-old girl to discover her father dead in Brentwood, Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney said Thursday.

Steven Pesantez, 29, of Brentwood and Isaiah Skees Pierre Louis, 27, of Bay Shore face multiple felony charges for allegedly selling the controlled substances, including the fentanyl that prosecutors said killed a former high school acquaintance of Pesantez.

“No child should ever have to find their parent dead from an overdose,” Tierney said in a prepared statement. “Public safety demands that we treat each of these deaths not as accidents, but as preventable tragedies caused by deliberate criminal conduct.”

The case began Feb. 12 when the 4-year-old discovered her father dead in their Brentwood home. The Suffolk County Medical Examiner later determined the death resulted from fentanyl intoxication.

‘Caught a body’

While investigating the fatal overdose, police separately began probing Skees as an alleged supplier of pressed fentanyl pills in the Amityville area, Tierney explained. An undercover officer arranged to purchase pills from Skees on three occasions between late February and early March, according to prosecutors.

Pesantez allegedly drove Skees to two of the three drug transactions. After the first sale, Skees texted the undercover officer asking about the product quality, Tierney said.

When the officer pretended to dislike the pills, Skees allegedly responded in a text: “I don’t get the crazy strong ones no more. My man caught a body off them.”

The text exchange occurred six days after the Brentwood father’s death, prosecutors said.

Authorities arrested Pesantez on July 22 on an unrelated burglary charge for allegedly breaking into his former girlfriend’s home. During a probation search of his residence, police allegedly found blue M30 pills believed to be Percocet that were identical to those Skees had sold to the undercover officer.

Officers also allegedly recovered cocaine and a digital scale.

• Three counts of third-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance.
• Third-degree attempted criminal sale of a controlled substance.
• Five counts of third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance.
• One count of fifth-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance.
• One count of second-degree criminally using drug paraphernalia.

Pesantez has been charged separately with burglary and criminal mischief. He has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges.

Justice Ambro set bail at $50,000 cash, $200,000 bond or $300,000 partially secured bond. Pesantez faces up to 12 years in prison if convicted on the top count and is due back in court September 26. He is represented by George Duncan.

Skees was arraigned Thursday before Justice Ambro on similar charges, all of which he pleaded not guilty to.

The judge set his bail at $25,000 cash, $100,000 bond or $250,000 partially secured bond. Skees faces up to nine years in prison if convicted and is due back in court Oct 1.

_{Top photos: On left, Isaiah Skees Pierre Louis of Bay Shore. At right, Steven Pesantez of Brentwood.}